References to Sexual Activity in media that is deemed appropriate for children

As blogged about by Zoe and Caron the latest wheeze to come out of the Cornerstone wing of the Tory party is for the rozzers to be able to put all sorts of restrictions on a person if they are found giving a child anything that relates to sexual activity or contains a reference to such activity. I thought I might come up with a list of examples of perfectly innocent things which a child of my daughter's age (10) might reasonably be given which relates to or contains reference to sexual activity.

Pretty much any chart single - even stuff by wholesome boy bands.

Books about impending puberty - such as the one Holly has which tells her which bits of her she might reasonably expect to grow and change over the next couple of years, and why this happens.

A DVD of the children's movie "Hotel Transylvania", which I took Holly to see at the cinema. It has several references to sexual activity, and one character who finds it amusing to systematically sexually assault other characters.

Anything explaining what child abuse is, or what to do if it happens to you.

DVDs of any of the last several series of Doctor Who. Many many references to sexual activity, including the conception of one recurring character.

I could go on but I'm sure you get the picture. And all this is without even going into the fact that Holly is a big fan of Old Harry's Game (lots of references to sexual activity, albeit mostly in the "eewww humans do icky things" vein) and ancient horror movies from Hammer and Amicus (yeah, that's inherited).

The thing is, I'm probably not going to be subject to a sexual control order. I'm a reasonably respectable white person with a job (for a given definition of respectable, anyway), so I'm not on the list of usual suspects that the rozzers like to target with these sorts of things. But if you're lower down the pecking order than me, and the sort of person the police like to stop for, for example, bag checks anyway...

I do NOT like the police being given powers which are so open to abuse. Sure, most of the force are great guys and gals who are just doing their jobs. But enough of them are powermad little Constable Savages who like to exercise the power they have unfairly that this new power would cause untold misery to those who are already under the bootheel of oppression.

You can add to the list anything designed to help parents deal with the inevitable toddler questions about where eggs/lambs/kittens/baby brothers come from or why the pet dog has to be taken to see the vet etc.

Are we to be banned from handling these questions sensitively but honestly as responsible parents? I hope this loony legislation does not apply here in Scotland!

Add to the reasons you would not be likely to be tagged... you're a woman. Should, say, a step-father be on the scene, he is always looked at with suspicion no matter what colour, job, age or religion he happens to be.

I still remember fuming over the way my husband was treated when an anonymous person called Social Services around 11 years ago and told them that my son "didn't look like he was being properly looked after". This was 3 days after I reported a local shopkeeper to the police for selling fireworks to my son (who was 8 or 9 at the time) so I figure it was him. Luckily(???) my son has ADHD and so was being seen by a team of psychologists, I and my husband (his step-father) both worked, so there was a childcarer to give a report, and we worked closely with the school because of the ADHD. But what really pissed me off was every question seem to start with "About the step-father... "

Taking pics of your babies/toddlers in the bath, letting them run around the house and garden naked when they feel comfortable. In fact, teaching them to be comfortable in and with their own bodies is going to be illegal soon *sigh* I don't _want_ to emigrate (I have an Aussie passport as well as UK)!

About This Blog

Hello! I'm Jennie (known to many as SB, due to my handle, or The Yorksher Gob because of my old blog's name). This blog is my public face; click here for a list of all the other places you can find me on t'interwebs.

Please note that any and all opinions expressed in this blog are subject to random change at whim my own, and not necessarily representative of my party, or any of the constituent parts thereof (except myself, obviously).